Last week we brought you the news that Sila Nanotechnologies, a producer of bleeding-edge battery technology, was likely bringing a massive new factory to Washington State. Starting with a tidbit of information we found in Gov. Jay Inslee’s calendar, we speculated they were headed for Wenatchee or Moses Lake in search of cheap power and abundant land.

A couple of days after that story, Sila, based in Alameda, CA, filed with the Secretary of State as a Washington business using a Moses Lake address. And on Tuesday, they issued this news release. 

The company plans to manufacture enough of its silicon-based battery components to help power as many as 500,000 electric vehicles and 500 million mobile phones annually, with production starting in late 2024. It says the site has the potential to multiply that production by 15X in future years — enough for as many as 10 million electric vehicles per year.

As we noted last week, Washington is actively courting green-energy companies, offering streamlined permitting and a tax incentive. 

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